


death came to visit me so sweetly

by Tobiko



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Child Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 08:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11779173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobiko/pseuds/Tobiko
Summary: Do you know what it feels like to die? The Isle kids do. It's not something that they like to talk about.





	death came to visit me so sweetly

In an act that the Auradonians may have interpreted as benevolent, they had never lifted the spell that brought the villains back to life, which made it impossible for anyone on the Isle to die. Perhaps they had known that the villains would never be able to coexist peacefully on the Isle and they wanted to take the option of homicide off the table, but the result was less than pleasant. It meant no one had to hold back. The opportunities for pain and humiliation doubled, and it was not uncommon to stumble upon some unfortunate soul who had clearly been murdered the night before tied up somewhere on the isle to further the shame. 

There wasn’t a villain kid alive who didn’t know what it was like to die, the cold and dark of their soul suspended in the ether and dragged back into their body, lingering pain and a disconnect from yourself that took minutes or hours to go away. It was awful and to be avoided at all costs, but with all the other occupants of the isle gunning for the kill, you had to fight dirty to survive and keep surviving.

There was no truce to be found, no way to stop the killing. Even if a peace ended up brokered it would only last so long before someone, usually some kid who had grown up on the isle who had never learned how to pull a punch, ended up offing someone else, and the peace would be broken, blood shed.

No one was to be coddled for dying, it was against the Isle code to talk about people’s deaths for too long, and it was especially against the Isle _kids_ code to talk about how at least half of their own deaths were caused by parents.

It was just the way that the Isle was.

.

Out of her whole crew, Mal probably died the most, though never in any turf wars or gang activity. No, Mal had an iron grip on the town and it would not due for her to die in the streets like some common sewer rat. Mal was rarely even injured in gang scuffles, a result of her fairy blood making her stronger and faster than most would anticipate from her small build. 

The only person who had ever killed Mal was Maleficent.

Most of her deaths were too early for her to remember. She was lucky that no brain damage resulted from deaths on the Isle, there was no way she would have gotten out of being a shaken baby statistic if there was permanent damage. By the time she was four she’d gotten better at dodging her mother, but even so she would wind up pushed head first down the stone steps of the Bargain Castle or hit in the temple with the fake Dragon’s Eye Scepter she’d crafted out of driftwood and debris or her mother’s personal favorite, strangling Mal until she stopped fighting.

While Mal got hit by her mother much less than, say, Carlos and Jay did by their parents, the big difference was that when Maleficent lashed out she was aiming to kill. It wasn’t just “lovetaps”, a somewhat cruel thing she’d said to Carlos once while he was nursing his bruises. Maleficent hurt Mal with intent, and when she got a good grip on her daughter Mal knew she would be waking up disoriented and miserable from another death. The frequency died down considerably as Mal got older, though, and by the time Evie joined their gang Mal hadn’t died in two whole years, and would never die on the Isle again.

.

Jay, in stark contrast to Mal, died almost exclusively in gang warfare and Isle scuffles. His father hit him but never with the malevolence of Mal’s mother or the crazed fury of Carlos’s. They were more often like afterthoughts, slaps or kicks or punches doled out in irritation rather than fury. By the time Jay was 11 any hits from his father were infrequent things, something Jay knew had nothing to do with any sort of kindness and more to do with the fact that Jay was growing and Jafar knew that someday Jay would be much taller, much stronger, and would be able to take revenge if he went too far. 

No, Jay died when he would find himself locked out of the Junk Shop after not coming how with an acceptable haul by Jafar’s standards. This started happening when Jay was as young as 8, and the Isle at night is not a place a young child should be. Jay would find himself jumped, all his possessions stolen, and waking up the next morning groggy and aware that he’d been knifed in the gut some mere hours before.

When he and Mal started working closer together he became her muscle and he took on the responsibilities that entailed, including being the first one to pop off a fight if needed. He rarely died in these confrontations, but his reputation grew, and with a target on his back he would wind up cornered by gangs of four or five kids from a rival gang. Even then, he made it out alive more often than not, and as with Mal the frequency of his deaths drastically reduced as he aged.

.

Carlos, to what be the surprise of many, rarely died. He was fast and he was wily, and, more than that, his mother didn’t want to kill him. Not for any fondness toward him, no. The first time Carlos died at the hands of his mother he was 5, and he woke up an hour later to Cruella screaming, “Finally! What a waste of time, does it have to take that long?!” From then on, she would beat him to within an inch of his life and then stop herself. Leave him alone for a few days to heal up so she wouldn’t accidentally do too much damage and have to wait for him to come back to fluff her furs.

It was almost cruel that she didn’t just kill him. There was a degree of healing that came from a death on the Isle and Carlos didn’t get the benefits of that.

Carlos would walk around limping and sore for days on end, nothing to be done for it. Sometimes, in a fit of crazy, he would consider asking one of his allies (not friends, never friends) to give him a quick death so he could come back revitalized. Unfortunately there were only three people he could even entertain the idea of trusting, and they all had their own drawbacks.

Evie would be upset if he ever asked her to. She would get misty eyed, concerned, start to try to baby him. Carlos couldn’t bear the thought of upsetting Evie so badly.

Jay would get protective and awkward. He’d try to joke about it, become too eager to take Carlos with him to steal stuff instead of just letting him go home, and Carlos would be ashamed.

Mal would do it. She was their fearless leader, she would and could. But-… Carlos knew, deep down, Mal wasn’t as tough as she pretended. Things weighed on her, and she hid it with bite and cursing. Carlos didn’t know what it meant or what to do about it, so just leaving it was better off. 

So Carlos moved into the clubhouse with the others and claimed a spot there, and his bruises faded, and one of Uma’s crew skewered him through the ribs and he woke up feeling empty and afraid, and when he looked up Mal and Evie and Carlos stood around him, shielding him, he didn’t really mind the dying.

. 

Evie died five times, and she died the same way every time.

From the age of six she and her mother were banished to the other side of the Isle by a furious Maleficent, and she spent ten years alone in her castle with only her mother for company. Evie loved her mother, but her mom was as insane as most people on the Isle. Grimhilde controlled Evie’s every second of every day. She made sure Evie brushed her hair just right, did her makeup just right, and made Evie do it over and over again until she was satisfied. It was boring and frustrating, and she never did it right the first time. 

And, every few months, Grimhilde put Evie on a diet.

It was always absurd to Evie, they didn’t have enough food for it to make sense to not eat it all, but her mother was insistent on Evie looking perfect. So Evie would go days without food when it was there in the cupboard, and she did everything her mother asked of her.

Sometimes, it wasn’t enough. Sometimes Evie’s mom locked her in her room to make sure he didn’t eat. Evie spent a lot of time locked in her room, so that wasn’t the issue. The issue was when her mom forgot her there.

Evie would start banging on the door day three, and sometimes her mom came to get her. The first time she hadn’t, Evie had panicked. She’d spent the next few days begging her mom to let her out, let her eat, at least let her drink something. Her mother never came.

Evie died of thirst and dehydration five days in. When she woke up it wasn’t a full reset, and she was still famished and thirsty. She died again two days later, still locked in her room.

Eventually her mom came to get her, muttering about mirrors and remarking how beautiful Evie looked now that she was thinner.

It happened three more times, and by the last time she didn’t bother banging on the door. There was no point.

.

About two months after joining Mal’s gang, Grimhilde called Evie fat and locked her in her room. Something inside of Evie knew that it would be one of those times, and she tried her best not to panic. She would get out eventually. It was fine, it was fine, she would be fine.

Day three came and went, and then that evening there was a commotion downstairs. Evie, laying on her bed and already starting to have trouble moving around, sat up in bed. She heard her mom scream, heard swearing and shattering, and suddenly her door was being flung open and Carlos was looking at her with wide, terrified eyes. “Evie!”

“Carlos?” Evie could hardly believe it. She started to get off her bed and her knees buckled. Carlos was by her side in a heartbeat, holding her up.

“She okay?” Jay and Mal came in, both looking ready for a fight.

“I’m fine,” was Evie’s quick reply. It was the standard Isle reply.

Jay frowned and he unclasped his flask from his pocket. Despite appearances, the flask only held water. Evie drank as much as she could greedily. Gently but firmly, she pushed Carlos away. He didn’t protest, taking a few steps back and watching her. It wouldn’t do any good for them to see her as too weak to stand on her own. 

“Why are you here?”

“You didn’t show up to our meetings. I don’t like people not showing up,” Mal growled. Evie looked at Mal, whose eyes had been glowing a steady green since she’d entered the room.

“I’m sorry.” 

“Yeah, you better be.”

Evie nodded. 

“Don’t let this happen again, Evie.” 

“I won’t.” 

“Evie,” Mal snapped, and her voice was sharp. Carlos and Jay exchanged a look. “Do _not_ let this happen again.”

There was something there, something emanating from Mal that Evie couldn’t quite put her finger on. “Of course not, Mal.”

“Good.” Mal turned to Jay, seemingly dismissing the matter with Evie, but by the way that her body was angled and the tenseness in her, Evie could tell Mal was watching her. “Uma’s making a play. We should go to her Ursula’s and put the fear of Maleficent in her. Help ourselves to some food.”

Mal turned her back abruptly. “Come on boys, Evie. We’ve got work to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I just find the idea that you can't die on the Island extremely compelling especially with the kinds of people who live there.


End file.
